Research on Pathways to Desistance [Maricopa County, AZ and Philadelphia County, PA]: Official Arrest Records, 2000-2010 [Restricted] (ICPSR 34605)

Citation

Mulvey, Edward P. Research on Pathways to Desistance [Maricopa County, AZ and Philadelphia County, PA]: Official Arrest Records, 2000-2010 [Restricted]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2014-07-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34605.v2

Alternate Title

Pathways to Desistance (Official Arrest Records)

Summary

The Pathways to Desistance study was a multi-site study that followed 1,354 serious juvenile offenders from adolescence to young adulthood in two locales between the years 2000 and 2010. Enrolled into the study were adjudicated youths from the juvenile and adult court systems in Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona (N=654), and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania (N=700).

The official arrests records of all 1,354 youth were obtained from multiple sources. For arrest/petitions under the age of 18, this information is based on petitions appearing in the juvenile and adult court records in each site. In Philadelphia, this information was gathered based on a hand review of juvenile and adult court documents; in Phoenix, the information is based on reports from two computerized court tracking systems (JOLTS--Juvenile On-Line Tracking System for juvenile court information, ICIS--Maricopa County Superior Court database for adult court information). For arrests/petitions over 18, FBI arrest records are the source of information. There is no self-reported information contained in this set of data.

Information from these different data sources is consolidated into the following categories:

Information regarding petitions with a date that falls prior to the baseline interview date ("prior petitions").

Information regarding the study index petition (also called the "initial referring petition"; this is the adjudication that prompted study enrollment). Information regarding the study index petition can be found by accessing the "type" variable associated with the prior petitions (specific variable name: Official Record Prior PetitionXX: Petition type). Depending on the investigator's needs, this petition can remain combined with the "priors" or be used as a stand-alone petition.

Information regarding arrests and court petitions with a date which falls after the baseline interview date in the Pathways study ("rearrests").

Citation

Mulvey, Edward P. Research on Pathways to Desistance [Maricopa County, AZ and Philadelphia County, PA]: Official Arrest Records, 2000-2010 [Restricted]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2014-07-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34605.v2

Geographic Coverage

Restrictions

Access to the Pathways Official Records data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Unit(s) of Observation

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

There are essentially 11 variables associated with each prior and rearrest petition/arrest:

Petition type (prior, initial referring or rearrest)

Source of information (court records or FBI)

Text description of the most serious charge on the petition/arrest

The offense grade for the most serious charge

A severity ranking for the charge

Person crime (e.g., aggravated assault, murder)

Property crime (e.g., robbery, receiving stolen property)

Weapons offense (e.g., possession of an unlicensed firearm

Sex offense (e.g., rape, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse)

Drug offense (e.g., possession of a controlled substance with intent to delivery)

Substance use (e.g., drug paraphernalia, possession)

These last six variables are binary markers (Yes/No) to show what other charges appear on the petition/arrest record. They were provided since specific charge information is only available for the charge with the highest severity.

The 11 variables noted above repeat for the maximum number of prior petitions (max=15) and rearrests (max=24) for the study participants. Most study participants won't have data in all fields since the majority do not reach the maximum. The average number of prior petitions is three and the average number of rearrests is four; therefore, information in variables associated with priors and rearrests above those numbers will be set to missing for the majority of cases.

Several additional variables related to the study index petition are available. The study enrollment criteria specified that participants must have been adjudicated (found guilty) for a serious charge (not just charged with one). As a result, for the study index petition, a text description of the most serious adjudicated charge is provided as well as the grade and category for that charge. In some, but not all, cases, the most serious adjudicated charge will be the same as the charge with the highest severity ranking. Information regarding the disposition related to the study index petition is also provided.

The file ends with a series of variables that provide the number of arrests that occurred in equal 6 month intervals through the end of the 84-month follow-up period for the study. For waves 1-6 (6-36 months), these intervals match the period of time included in the self report interview information. However, for waves 7-10, the interview recall period was 12 months in length and, therefore, the counts of official record arrests will need to be combined if the investigator wishes to align this data with the self report information. For example, in order to line up with the interview recall period represented in wave 7, the official record number of arrests for 36-42 and 42-48 will need to be combined. In order to line up the self report information for wave 8, the arrest counts for 48-54 and 54-60 will need to be combined.